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Suspected IIs held in Mongkok

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Twenty-nine suspected illegal workers from the mainland and four Hong Kong people who employed them were arrested in Mongkok yesterday.

Most of the 29 visitors arrested were from Guangdong and had come to Hong Kong on two-way permits usually issued to people visiting relatives in the special administrative region.

The commander of the Immigration Department taskforce on illegal workers, Chief Immigration Officer Chan Man-ho, said the suspects were not among the 40,000 individual visitors recently allowed to tour Hong Kong under a relaxed visa policy.

The 29 mainlanders - 22 men and seven women - were all working as casual labourers, and earning between $100 and $200 a day, or about one-third to half of the wages of local workers, Mr Chan said.

The arrests were made during a four-phase, 10-hour operation, Mr Chan said, with some of the arrests made by officers pretending to be employers.

A team of 78 officers, including 12 from the police, were involved in the bust, which began at 6.45am in Fai Fu and Portland streets, where mainland visitors gather daily to hunt for jobs. Officers rounded up 16 of the suspects there before arresting a further 10 in Fa Yuen Street and seven in Ladies Street.

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